Rana Motors, dealers in heavy duty vehicles on Tuesday introduced four new Ashok Leyland models onto to the Ghanaian market.
The vehicles are Partner, Boss 914, Captain 2524 and Hawk.
The Partner (freight carrier), Boss 914 (heavy duty truck), Captain 2523 (rugged dumper) and Hawk (40 seater bus) are noted for high performance, efficiency, durability and little maintenance is required on them due to their robustness.
Launching the vehicles, the Deputy Minister of Transport, Mr Daniel Nii Kwartei Titus-Glover, called on Ashok Leyland to take advantage of the stable political, business and labour environment to establish an assembly plant in the country.
“As part of government industrialisation policy to create employment for our youth, we are ready to facilitate the production and assembling of vehicles in Ghana and already some players in the automobile industry have shown interest,” he said.
Mr Titus-Glover said the introduction of the new models at this time of Ghana’s economic transformation demonstrated the confidence that the company had in the Ghanaian economy.
He therefore implored the automobile giant to constantly come out with innovative products that would put it ahead of its competitors.
The President of Ashok Leyland, Mr Seth Nitin, said the new models were designed and developed to meet the expectations of customers and add value to their business.
He said Ashok Leyland having existed in Africa for more than two decades, had a good knowledge of the terrain and the quality of vehicles suitable for it, adding “our partnership with Rana Motors makes it possible to provide spare parts, training services by experienced engineers and after sales services to our customers”.
Mr Nitin accepted the suggestion to set up an assembly plant in Ghana and noted that visibility studies would be conducted to see how it could be implemented.
Chief Operating Officer of Rana Motors, Kaseem Odaymat, said the new models were targeted at filling the gap in the haulage and transportation of goods and persons.
He assured of their affordability, high performance, reliability and good after sales support.
“Our facilities in Tema, Spintex, Accra, Takoradi and Kumasi will enable us to keep the down time of vehicles at the lowest time and be your worthy partner in running your business,” he said.
The Indian High Commissioner to Ghana, Shri Birender Singh Yadav graced the occasion.
Partner has a spacious Euro cab, a gross vehicle weight of 6 tons and 7.2 tons to address applications like parcel goods, durables, perishables and fast moving consumer goods. Its tiltable cabin, low loading platform height and runner mounted load body enables service accessibility, the heavy duty axles enables it to handle tough conditions.
The Boss 914 is designed for high payloads of 5 tons, with loading span of up to 17 feet, it is ideal for applications like packaged goods, parcel services and e-commerce.
Captain 2523 is ideal for mining, construction and canal projects.
The Hawk comes in both air conditioned and non-air conditioned with a large headroom, huge leg space and high head rest seats.
FROM GODFRED BLAY GIBBAH, TEMA
